'It's a Verb Across the U.S.': PayPal CEO on Venmo | At Barron's
Summary
Company Overview: PayPal, with its brands PayPal and Venmo, focuses on facilitating global money movement and transactions for over 400 million consumers and tens of millions of merchants.
Growth Strategy: PayPal is undergoing a transformation from a digital payments company to a comprehensive commerce platform, aiming to enhance end-to-end commerce experiences for both merchants and consumers.
Market Position: Despite challenges, PayPal has achieved six consecutive quarters of growth by focusing on profitability and improving core branded experiences, including Venmo and unbranded products.
Competitive Landscape: PayPal operates in a dynamic ecosystem with competitors like Mastercard, Visa, and Apple Pay, focusing on meeting evolving consumer needs such as buy now, pay later options.
Brand Differentiation: Venmo targets a younger demographic in the U.S., while PayPal serves a broader age range globally, with distinct offerings for different consumer and merchant needs.
Innovation and Future Outlook: PayPal is investing in new technologies like stable coins and omni-channel solutions to stay competitive and drive future growth.
Stock Performance: The company is focused on consistent execution to improve investor confidence and potentially increase its current P/E ratio, which stands at 14.
Marketing and Brand Image: PayPal is revitalizing its brand image through engaging marketing campaigns, including collaborations with personalities like Will Ferrell, to reconnect with consumers.
Transcript
[Music] Hello everyone and welcome to At Barons. I'm Andy Sir and welcome to our guest Alex Chris, CEO of PayPal. Alex, great to see you. Thanks for joining us. >> It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. >> So PayPal, people know that company and that brand and they also know that you own Venmo. But how would you describe the company, Alex, and what it does? Yeah, look, we are a couple of brands that you you just mentioned, PayPal and Venmo, and we are really focused on helping people move, spend uh and take care of their money in the best way possible. And so, it's a global organization. We serve over 400 million uh consumers around the world. It's a two-sided network, so we're also deep with our our merchants and tens of millions of merchants that uh accept PayPal and accept Venmo. and we create a frictionless experience between consumers and merchants and make sure that that transaction can happen in a safe and secure manner. >> There's a lot to the business. We'll get into it. When you say 400 million, so is that daily users? How many of those people are using PayPal? How many are using Venmo? Can you give a little more color there, please? >> Yeah. So, you know, 400 million is usually our 12-month rolling average. Uh, but over half of that actually transacts on a monthly basis. And so we've got over 200 million that are are transacting with us on a monthly basis and that's across both PayPal and Benmo. Uh and it's very global and so uh you know PayPal really has expanded and and become a payment mechanism around the world. >> PayPal has a fascinating history going back to the PayPal mafia and Elon Musk and Peter Teal. And by the way, I heard you guys I think I understand you bought Venmo in 2013 for something like $26 million. Yeah, it was a it was a transaction where you know we were buying a processing business which is Brainree which is still our our unbranded processing uh solution and Venmo was kind of a side project uh that was just part of the acquisition and again I mean you think about in the US now Venmo is a verb uh I've got two sons in college and uh you know they they call me every once in a while and just say dad this is Venmo is what everybody on campus is using to be able to you know move money with their friends, split a pizza and and reimburse each other. Uh, and we're leaning hard into into that college community. I don't we just uh a few weeks ago announced a partnership with the Big 10 and Big 12 to be able to, you know, have Venmo be be pervasive across college campuses. So, again, it's it's a verb across across the US. >> Absolutely. And it's not just for young people. Someone just asked me to Venmo me $40 uh just a few minutes ago. True story. >> Did you do it? >> Uh, not yet. I had I had an interview to do. Um, so and but let's talk about the difference in the brands a little bit because Venmo has skewed to a younger cohort than PayPal. Is that correct? >> Uh, in the US it has. And so, uh, in the US, Venmo, you know, we have a teen product now. So, we really are starting, uh, and being that first, uh, mechanism. Again, I've got a a 14-year-old who we've set up on Venmo. we can monitor uh his spending habits, but he has the freedom and flexibility now with his phone to be able to tap to pay and make a purchase, have his debit card and and have enough freedom uh with with the right guardrail. So, we start with teen and really go up. Again, everybody is at some uh form using Venmo, but the the core cohort is is that teen to 29y old range. uh outside of the US though uh PayPal is a pervasive brand and we've got uh a significant number of uh um you know 18 to uh 55 using PayPal all around the world. >> Um I know you came over from Intuit about what two years ago very long run at that company. >> Since then um PayPal's stock has had its ups and downs versus the S&P 500. What do you attribute that to? You know, I when I came in, uh I think I was very clear even in my first earnings call that uh this was going to be a turnaround and and turnarounds take time. Um what what we've been focused on is returning the company to profitability, which we have. Uh we've been focused on getting some of these core brands and core experiences moving again. So Venmo was a product that it really had been undermonetized for years. Uh and it's something that we've now uh returned to to real growth, both customer growth as well as revenue growth. Uh our unbranded product hadn't really uh shown profitability in a number of years. We've now turned that to profitability. Uh and then we've improved our core uh core branded checkout experiences for PayPal. So yeah, look, we have some of the core elements that we had, we knew we had to fix and we're now innovating with new and exciting innovations like PayPal World, which is something we announced last month. So look, these turnarounds take time. This is a big company. uh we serve a lot of customers around the world and uh you know I am one of the most impatient people you will meet and so it's hard for me to uh to take the time to go through this but this is an incredible organization that impacts a lot of people and uh we're on the right trajectory >> maybe this is a part of it Alice because you said you wanted to move from being focused on digital payments to becoming a commerce platform for merchants and consumers what does that mean exactly >> yeah so you know traditionally when PayPal started it really was reducing friction in just a payment, right? It was very hard uh in in the early days of online commerce to just have a merchant be able to accept a payment from a consumer. That was that was what PayPal was started with. Uh and it did an incredible job. Uh but that's insufficient to really serve the needs of a consumer and the needs of a merchant. So the transformation that we're going through now is really taking that two-sided network, taking the data that we have, taking the trust that we've built with our consumers and merchants and helping to solve the end-to-end commerce journey. So that starts from a merchant with who do I find? How do I personalize my experience to the right uh customer? How do I make sure that my marketing dollars and my advertising dollars are going to the consumers that I really want? And how can I give them an offer at the right moment at the right time to then be able to breeze through checkout? And then how do I have an ongoing relationship with that customer? And we think with our ability to personalize uh the experience with the data that we have uh with with the surface area that we have inside of our apps, we can enable merchants to have that that conversation with their with their consumers. And likewise with consumers, there's so much choice out there now. There's so much choice. You go and do a search or now with Agentic Commerce, you're being bombarded with offers all the time and products and services. Who do you trust? How do you make sure you know you're getting the right product at the right price? Uh, and how do you know you're using the best instrument in your wallet to be able to get the rewards that you need or or use buy now pay later if you need that as an option? So, we think because we see both sides of those ecosystems, we can actually create a commerce uh story that really will power the company to the next generation. >> Yeah. To follow up on that, I want to ask you about this whole payments ecosystem because it is so vast. It's kind of perplexing and bewildering. Um, you know, you've got Mastercard and Visa, the banks, Apple Pay, CLA, a firm, you guys, Square. How do you even think about that? And where do you guys fit in? You talked about the myriad competitors. >> It it is uh it's one of the most exciting parts about this job is that we are in this nexus of so many different elements that are happening. uh some of them are outright competitors, some of them are there's a lot of coopetition where you know we work together to serve customer needs uh and we also figure out how to compete. It's very very dynamic and it's very exciting for me. I try to simp simplify things down. What do customers really need? And I'll give you an example. We have customers now where that younger cohort that we're looking at are their behaviors are really changing. Uh they're moving away from credit cards. they saw their parents go through an 0809 uh credit crisis and they've sort of said and when we have conversations with these consumers they're saying listen I never want a credit card I'm going to pay on debit but for that moment where I need to make a purchase of a TV and I and and I I don't know when I'm going to get paid next so I'm not able to afford it I want to buy now pay later option so this is now new instruments that have come into the market and we have to be able to be there for that customer So whether it's competition and every all the other noise in the market, we simplify it down. What are the needs of our merchants? What are the needs of our consumers? And how do we put the right products in front of them at the right time? >> And you guys will always, maybe not always, but for the time being, need banks to do your transactions. Correct. >> Banks are a huge part of our ecosystem and and and great partners for us around the world. Uh and again, we we think we've got a great relationship with our consumer and we can help bridge that gap between what the banks need uh and and what uh what our consumers need. >> You recently had some issues in Germany and I want to ask you about that. It seems like it was resolved, but what happened there, Alex? >> You know, we we have service interruptions from time to time. Uh they're always unfortunate. Our our focus is on making sure that our consumers and our merchants are well taken care of. So, uh, we resolved it and, uh, you know, now we're just focused on our our consumers. >> You've had six consecutive quarters of growth. Um, I know in the most recent one, your guidance was up, your earnings was up, and still the stock tracked down a little bit afterwards because there was concern about branded checkout volume. What is branded checkout volume and what are you doing to mitigate any softness there? >> Yeah. Well, first I'm very proud of the six quarters of of uh of growth and it's part of that story of turning the company around and again I think we're just getting started there. Uh branded checkout is a is a really important element for us and uh it includes uh the PayPal branded button. Uh it also includes Venmo branded buttons. So we now have a pay with Venmo button. Uh and it includes our buy now pay later business. And you put those three together and it really is what we consider our branded checkout uh experience. Uh we're seeing significant growth across uh both Venmo and buy now pay later. The core branded PayPal button has been consistent uh over the last really the last few years. Uh but we need to turn that around and the conversation that I had with with our uh investor community at our investor day back in February was you know we see a path to get to 8 to 10% uh brand to checkout growth uh over over by 2027. And so that's the path we're on. We've released new uh capabilities for our customers and our merchants that are starting to see in the right cohorts the right uh trajectory that we want. And so we've got a lot of confidence that we will get there. Again, this takes time. We're talking about billions of dollars of volume going through our branded experiences. It takes time to move every basis point up. Uh but we know we're on the right trajectory. We've got the right momentum now uh and the right experiences for customers and and we'll get there. >> I want to ask you about Apple. I mentioned them earlier. Are are they a competitor? Are they a partner? Are they both? How do they fit in with what you do? >> Uh all of the above. Uh you know, we obviously uh you know, an Apple Pay button uh on a website or a PayPal button on the website. We want our our customers to choose the PayPal button. Uh and we think we have a value proposition now uh as well as an experience that that will uh uh will will earn that that click from the the consumer. They're also a partner. You know, last year, one of the big innovations that we launched was really moving PayPal into an omni channel world. So, previously it really just been about e-commerce. Uh, and when I came in, I talked to a lot of customers that said, "I love PayPal. I use it every day for my e-commerce transactions. Why can't I use it offline? Why can't I use it when I walk into a store?" And so we actually worked with Apple and launched uh uh launched our product called PayPal Everywhere where you could now tap to pay in the US and be able to check out with PayPal in any store uh through Apple Pay. We then took that technology and actually launched it in Germany uh with a competing wallet. So now you can actually make PayPal your default wallet in Germany and tap to pay using PayPal. And we're starting to see really really good growth uh in Germany in that market. So we we uh it's a very dynamic system and uh and we're excited about that offline growth. >> You must have an incredible view into the American consumer. In fact, the global consumer, let's just stay with America though. How is the American consumer fairing right now based on the visibility you have? >> You know what we see are pretty consistent trends. uh you know, we can actually see little bits of of ups and downs from a week- toeek basis based on tariff news and so forth, but but overall it's been very consistent over the last few quarters. And you know, consumers are resilient and I think they're they're uh they're figuring out how to live in in a world where things seem very dynamic uh and they just continue to to sort of chug along. So nothing dramatic that we're seeing in any of the data right now. I want to go back to this notion of having these two big consumer brands, Venmo and PayPal, and do you see that always being the case? Is there any thought of ever merging them or are they good or are you good having two separate identities like that? >> You know, Venmo really only is in the US. So, that would be a US um challenge. Uh and we really feel really good about the different demographics that they serve. So again, PayPal is really about uh you know, managing your money in a different way, spending. We now have an omni channel solution. It it really is uh serving a different customer cohort. And we're adding new capabilities like shopping, agentic commerce, the ability to find uh different deals, uh uh rewards. the entire PayPal experience is really starting to evolve and Venmo really is focused in the US on that peer-to-peer transaction uh that college demographic uh that that is uh uh exchanging money together or as you as you highlighted earlier that comment of you know hey Venmo me um right that is how service-based businesses are uh are really asking to get paid so it's it it actually even our merchant demographics are different so on PayPal these are really product based businesses Right? These are e-commerce stores that are asking to get paid with a tap to pay. The Venmo merchant business is a service-based business. It's it's the businesses that are cutting your hair or mowing your lawn or doing things and they need to get paid and cash is yesterday's game. And so, how will they get paid in an easy way? Venmo me. >> Speaking of cash being yesterday's game, stable coins, you guys are in that a little bit. Tell us about that. >> Yeah, we launched uh our own stable coin PYUSD uh a little over a year ago. Uh, you know, I think it's only a matter of time until we start to see crypto really disrupting and displacing the current ecosystem, which which just makes sense. I mean, over time, you you have to be able to to evolve. Uh, it's not going to happen overnight, and there will likely be different corridors that uh that stable coins are most relevant for. So, our first focus is really crossber transactions. uh these are transactions that take time, they're expensive, uh and there's a lot of fees that we can take out of the system and help our merchants uh transact in a in a fast, safe, secure manner. So, that'll be our first focus. Um you know, eventually, you know, we may look at at doing that domestically, but we're excited about stable coins. >> You said you wanted to narrow your focus, improve execution, and reposition the business. How are those things going? Um and why those things specifically? Yeah. Well, each is is really important. Uh, you know, if I were to pull back, uh, when I got here a little under two years ago, uh, when I sat down and did our first product review, uh, the team was very excited, uh, but doing a lot of things. We were doing 300 different things. And, you know, I really challenged the team to say, what are the three to five things that just matter the most? And then it came down to some of the things we've already covered. How do we make sure that our branded checkout experience is best-in-class and we can continue to accelerate it? How do we move into an omni channel world uh and really win there? How do we get Venmo back to growth? Uh how do we make sure our unbranded business now can be set up for the future and really make sure that not only are we winning merchants, but we're delivering value added services that we can monetize. So those were the types of things that we really focused in on. Uh that focus allowed us to start that turnaround that we talked about for the business, but then also allowed us to improve our execution because now we've got dedicated teams that are customer back. We reoriented the organization so that they were focused on our customers, our consumers, our small businesses, and our large enterprise merchants. Uh and now the team is just really starting to innovate and crank away. So look, it's these these turnarounds take time. uh and uh uh you know, we're not where we want to be yet, but we're definitely moving in the right direction. >> You have this one thing kind of hanging over your head as a company, which is $310 stock price that the shares hit in 2021 and it was a total COVID play. Everyone understands that. But still, it's like this stock's around $70 now. And so that's how do you even think about that cuz it's just sort of this mountain over there in the past. >> Yeah. I don't think about it very often. I wasn't here. Uh uh I think there's a lot of plays that uh I understand likely why it went there at the time. I think CO was uh very exciting and very confusing for a lot of uh businesses that were out there. Um, and uh, you know, my job right now is to come in and figure out how we get back to growth and and hopefully we get back to a stock price in in that kind of range in the future. But it's all going to be based on execution, focus, and continuing to innovate for our customers. So look, this is a company that when you have the kind of brands that we've talked about, the the breadth of products, services, and customer base and the amount of volume that we move around the world, we have so much potential in front of us. And then you think about some of the the new uh disruptions that are happening and that that's one of the things that gets me the most excited is you mentioned stable coins. We look at Agentic Commerce, we look at just all the change that's coming. uh we're a leader in the space in a time of big disruption. I think that opens up a lot of opportunities for growth. So I I I obviously have uh uh you know shareholders as a key stakeholder that I think about and I want them to be happy and I want to uh return great results for them. But in terms of focusing on the past and what stock prices might have been, I don't I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. >> And just one more question about the stock. I mean, the multiple is the trailing 12-month PE is 14 and change. And do you think it should be higher than that? And what can you do to to really drive the stock forward? I mean, I'm sure it's this execution. >> Yeah, look, I Yes, I think it should be higher than that. Uh, >> what is it? What is the PE? >> Look, I think our our investors will figure out what what it should be. For me, uh, it's going to be based on consistency, right? I'm not I'm Look, I I came in with eyes wide open, right? We were a company that hadn't delivered profitability, had missed a lot of our uh you know, consistently missed on on our uh guidance coming in. So, look, we were in a penalty box. I totally understand that. Uh what we've been focused on is relentless execution. And, you know, I I get feedback sometimes from from some of our shareholders on, you know, you've underpromised, you know, every time you go to earnings. Yeah. And we've overd delivered. And so for us, we're just going to get into that regular rhythm. We're going to do the best we can. The this is an incredibly dynamic market right now. There's a lot of things that are going on. So, we want to make sure that uh we're able to earn the trust of our investors and uh and I think the stock price will take care of itself. >> And final fun question at the end, which is, are you going to continue to have Will Ferrell do your ads? >> Yeah, Will. Will has been uh fantastic. Again, you know, one of the things we talked about as as we stepped in and and uh you know, we were really focused on the consumer was we got to bring some fund back to the PayPal brand. Uh and you know, as I went around and talked to consumers, they just hadn't thought about the brand in the same way. Even though we're we're a top 50 brand in the world, uh certainly in the US, we had lost a little bit of that uh that gusto. And so, uh Will was a great I mean, he's I've got to spend some time with him. He is uh truly uh the sweetest, nicest, and funniest person you'll you'll ever meet. Uh and you know, stay tuned. We'll see. We'll see. Uh we've had a couple of really good uh really good commercials with him come out. Um and uh he loves the products and he uses them all the time. So, >> all right, we'll be watching Alex Chris, CEO of PayPal. Thank you so much for joining us. >> Thank you. >> This is at Barren. I'm Andy Sir. We'll check you next time.
'It's a Verb Across the U.S.': PayPal CEO on Venmo | At Barron's
Summary
Transcript
[Music] Hello everyone and welcome to At Barons. I'm Andy Sir and welcome to our guest Alex Chris, CEO of PayPal. Alex, great to see you. Thanks for joining us. >> It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. >> So PayPal, people know that company and that brand and they also know that you own Venmo. But how would you describe the company, Alex, and what it does? Yeah, look, we are a couple of brands that you you just mentioned, PayPal and Venmo, and we are really focused on helping people move, spend uh and take care of their money in the best way possible. And so, it's a global organization. We serve over 400 million uh consumers around the world. It's a two-sided network, so we're also deep with our our merchants and tens of millions of merchants that uh accept PayPal and accept Venmo. and we create a frictionless experience between consumers and merchants and make sure that that transaction can happen in a safe and secure manner. >> There's a lot to the business. We'll get into it. When you say 400 million, so is that daily users? How many of those people are using PayPal? How many are using Venmo? Can you give a little more color there, please? >> Yeah. So, you know, 400 million is usually our 12-month rolling average. Uh, but over half of that actually transacts on a monthly basis. And so we've got over 200 million that are are transacting with us on a monthly basis and that's across both PayPal and Benmo. Uh and it's very global and so uh you know PayPal really has expanded and and become a payment mechanism around the world. >> PayPal has a fascinating history going back to the PayPal mafia and Elon Musk and Peter Teal. And by the way, I heard you guys I think I understand you bought Venmo in 2013 for something like $26 million. Yeah, it was a it was a transaction where you know we were buying a processing business which is Brainree which is still our our unbranded processing uh solution and Venmo was kind of a side project uh that was just part of the acquisition and again I mean you think about in the US now Venmo is a verb uh I've got two sons in college and uh you know they they call me every once in a while and just say dad this is Venmo is what everybody on campus is using to be able to you know move money with their friends, split a pizza and and reimburse each other. Uh, and we're leaning hard into into that college community. I don't we just uh a few weeks ago announced a partnership with the Big 10 and Big 12 to be able to, you know, have Venmo be be pervasive across college campuses. So, again, it's it's a verb across across the US. >> Absolutely. And it's not just for young people. Someone just asked me to Venmo me $40 uh just a few minutes ago. True story. >> Did you do it? >> Uh, not yet. I had I had an interview to do. Um, so and but let's talk about the difference in the brands a little bit because Venmo has skewed to a younger cohort than PayPal. Is that correct? >> Uh, in the US it has. And so, uh, in the US, Venmo, you know, we have a teen product now. So, we really are starting, uh, and being that first, uh, mechanism. Again, I've got a a 14-year-old who we've set up on Venmo. we can monitor uh his spending habits, but he has the freedom and flexibility now with his phone to be able to tap to pay and make a purchase, have his debit card and and have enough freedom uh with with the right guardrail. So, we start with teen and really go up. Again, everybody is at some uh form using Venmo, but the the core cohort is is that teen to 29y old range. uh outside of the US though uh PayPal is a pervasive brand and we've got uh a significant number of uh um you know 18 to uh 55 using PayPal all around the world. >> Um I know you came over from Intuit about what two years ago very long run at that company. >> Since then um PayPal's stock has had its ups and downs versus the S&P 500. What do you attribute that to? You know, I when I came in, uh I think I was very clear even in my first earnings call that uh this was going to be a turnaround and and turnarounds take time. Um what what we've been focused on is returning the company to profitability, which we have. Uh we've been focused on getting some of these core brands and core experiences moving again. So Venmo was a product that it really had been undermonetized for years. Uh and it's something that we've now uh returned to to real growth, both customer growth as well as revenue growth. Uh our unbranded product hadn't really uh shown profitability in a number of years. We've now turned that to profitability. Uh and then we've improved our core uh core branded checkout experiences for PayPal. So yeah, look, we have some of the core elements that we had, we knew we had to fix and we're now innovating with new and exciting innovations like PayPal World, which is something we announced last month. So look, these turnarounds take time. This is a big company. uh we serve a lot of customers around the world and uh you know I am one of the most impatient people you will meet and so it's hard for me to uh to take the time to go through this but this is an incredible organization that impacts a lot of people and uh we're on the right trajectory >> maybe this is a part of it Alice because you said you wanted to move from being focused on digital payments to becoming a commerce platform for merchants and consumers what does that mean exactly >> yeah so you know traditionally when PayPal started it really was reducing friction in just a payment, right? It was very hard uh in in the early days of online commerce to just have a merchant be able to accept a payment from a consumer. That was that was what PayPal was started with. Uh and it did an incredible job. Uh but that's insufficient to really serve the needs of a consumer and the needs of a merchant. So the transformation that we're going through now is really taking that two-sided network, taking the data that we have, taking the trust that we've built with our consumers and merchants and helping to solve the end-to-end commerce journey. So that starts from a merchant with who do I find? How do I personalize my experience to the right uh customer? How do I make sure that my marketing dollars and my advertising dollars are going to the consumers that I really want? And how can I give them an offer at the right moment at the right time to then be able to breeze through checkout? And then how do I have an ongoing relationship with that customer? And we think with our ability to personalize uh the experience with the data that we have uh with with the surface area that we have inside of our apps, we can enable merchants to have that that conversation with their with their consumers. And likewise with consumers, there's so much choice out there now. There's so much choice. You go and do a search or now with Agentic Commerce, you're being bombarded with offers all the time and products and services. Who do you trust? How do you make sure you know you're getting the right product at the right price? Uh, and how do you know you're using the best instrument in your wallet to be able to get the rewards that you need or or use buy now pay later if you need that as an option? So, we think because we see both sides of those ecosystems, we can actually create a commerce uh story that really will power the company to the next generation. >> Yeah. To follow up on that, I want to ask you about this whole payments ecosystem because it is so vast. It's kind of perplexing and bewildering. Um, you know, you've got Mastercard and Visa, the banks, Apple Pay, CLA, a firm, you guys, Square. How do you even think about that? And where do you guys fit in? You talked about the myriad competitors. >> It it is uh it's one of the most exciting parts about this job is that we are in this nexus of so many different elements that are happening. uh some of them are outright competitors, some of them are there's a lot of coopetition where you know we work together to serve customer needs uh and we also figure out how to compete. It's very very dynamic and it's very exciting for me. I try to simp simplify things down. What do customers really need? And I'll give you an example. We have customers now where that younger cohort that we're looking at are their behaviors are really changing. Uh they're moving away from credit cards. they saw their parents go through an 0809 uh credit crisis and they've sort of said and when we have conversations with these consumers they're saying listen I never want a credit card I'm going to pay on debit but for that moment where I need to make a purchase of a TV and I and and I I don't know when I'm going to get paid next so I'm not able to afford it I want to buy now pay later option so this is now new instruments that have come into the market and we have to be able to be there for that customer So whether it's competition and every all the other noise in the market, we simplify it down. What are the needs of our merchants? What are the needs of our consumers? And how do we put the right products in front of them at the right time? >> And you guys will always, maybe not always, but for the time being, need banks to do your transactions. Correct. >> Banks are a huge part of our ecosystem and and and great partners for us around the world. Uh and again, we we think we've got a great relationship with our consumer and we can help bridge that gap between what the banks need uh and and what uh what our consumers need. >> You recently had some issues in Germany and I want to ask you about that. It seems like it was resolved, but what happened there, Alex? >> You know, we we have service interruptions from time to time. Uh they're always unfortunate. Our our focus is on making sure that our consumers and our merchants are well taken care of. So, uh, we resolved it and, uh, you know, now we're just focused on our our consumers. >> You've had six consecutive quarters of growth. Um, I know in the most recent one, your guidance was up, your earnings was up, and still the stock tracked down a little bit afterwards because there was concern about branded checkout volume. What is branded checkout volume and what are you doing to mitigate any softness there? >> Yeah. Well, first I'm very proud of the six quarters of of uh of growth and it's part of that story of turning the company around and again I think we're just getting started there. Uh branded checkout is a is a really important element for us and uh it includes uh the PayPal branded button. Uh it also includes Venmo branded buttons. So we now have a pay with Venmo button. Uh and it includes our buy now pay later business. And you put those three together and it really is what we consider our branded checkout uh experience. Uh we're seeing significant growth across uh both Venmo and buy now pay later. The core branded PayPal button has been consistent uh over the last really the last few years. Uh but we need to turn that around and the conversation that I had with with our uh investor community at our investor day back in February was you know we see a path to get to 8 to 10% uh brand to checkout growth uh over over by 2027. And so that's the path we're on. We've released new uh capabilities for our customers and our merchants that are starting to see in the right cohorts the right uh trajectory that we want. And so we've got a lot of confidence that we will get there. Again, this takes time. We're talking about billions of dollars of volume going through our branded experiences. It takes time to move every basis point up. Uh but we know we're on the right trajectory. We've got the right momentum now uh and the right experiences for customers and and we'll get there. >> I want to ask you about Apple. I mentioned them earlier. Are are they a competitor? Are they a partner? Are they both? How do they fit in with what you do? >> Uh all of the above. Uh you know, we obviously uh you know, an Apple Pay button uh on a website or a PayPal button on the website. We want our our customers to choose the PayPal button. Uh and we think we have a value proposition now uh as well as an experience that that will uh uh will will earn that that click from the the consumer. They're also a partner. You know, last year, one of the big innovations that we launched was really moving PayPal into an omni channel world. So, previously it really just been about e-commerce. Uh, and when I came in, I talked to a lot of customers that said, "I love PayPal. I use it every day for my e-commerce transactions. Why can't I use it offline? Why can't I use it when I walk into a store?" And so we actually worked with Apple and launched uh uh launched our product called PayPal Everywhere where you could now tap to pay in the US and be able to check out with PayPal in any store uh through Apple Pay. We then took that technology and actually launched it in Germany uh with a competing wallet. So now you can actually make PayPal your default wallet in Germany and tap to pay using PayPal. And we're starting to see really really good growth uh in Germany in that market. So we we uh it's a very dynamic system and uh and we're excited about that offline growth. >> You must have an incredible view into the American consumer. In fact, the global consumer, let's just stay with America though. How is the American consumer fairing right now based on the visibility you have? >> You know what we see are pretty consistent trends. uh you know, we can actually see little bits of of ups and downs from a week- toeek basis based on tariff news and so forth, but but overall it's been very consistent over the last few quarters. And you know, consumers are resilient and I think they're they're uh they're figuring out how to live in in a world where things seem very dynamic uh and they just continue to to sort of chug along. So nothing dramatic that we're seeing in any of the data right now. I want to go back to this notion of having these two big consumer brands, Venmo and PayPal, and do you see that always being the case? Is there any thought of ever merging them or are they good or are you good having two separate identities like that? >> You know, Venmo really only is in the US. So, that would be a US um challenge. Uh and we really feel really good about the different demographics that they serve. So again, PayPal is really about uh you know, managing your money in a different way, spending. We now have an omni channel solution. It it really is uh serving a different customer cohort. And we're adding new capabilities like shopping, agentic commerce, the ability to find uh different deals, uh uh rewards. the entire PayPal experience is really starting to evolve and Venmo really is focused in the US on that peer-to-peer transaction uh that college demographic uh that that is uh uh exchanging money together or as you as you highlighted earlier that comment of you know hey Venmo me um right that is how service-based businesses are uh are really asking to get paid so it's it it actually even our merchant demographics are different so on PayPal these are really product based businesses Right? These are e-commerce stores that are asking to get paid with a tap to pay. The Venmo merchant business is a service-based business. It's it's the businesses that are cutting your hair or mowing your lawn or doing things and they need to get paid and cash is yesterday's game. And so, how will they get paid in an easy way? Venmo me. >> Speaking of cash being yesterday's game, stable coins, you guys are in that a little bit. Tell us about that. >> Yeah, we launched uh our own stable coin PYUSD uh a little over a year ago. Uh, you know, I think it's only a matter of time until we start to see crypto really disrupting and displacing the current ecosystem, which which just makes sense. I mean, over time, you you have to be able to to evolve. Uh, it's not going to happen overnight, and there will likely be different corridors that uh that stable coins are most relevant for. So, our first focus is really crossber transactions. uh these are transactions that take time, they're expensive, uh and there's a lot of fees that we can take out of the system and help our merchants uh transact in a in a fast, safe, secure manner. So, that'll be our first focus. Um you know, eventually, you know, we may look at at doing that domestically, but we're excited about stable coins. >> You said you wanted to narrow your focus, improve execution, and reposition the business. How are those things going? Um and why those things specifically? Yeah. Well, each is is really important. Uh, you know, if I were to pull back, uh, when I got here a little under two years ago, uh, when I sat down and did our first product review, uh, the team was very excited, uh, but doing a lot of things. We were doing 300 different things. And, you know, I really challenged the team to say, what are the three to five things that just matter the most? And then it came down to some of the things we've already covered. How do we make sure that our branded checkout experience is best-in-class and we can continue to accelerate it? How do we move into an omni channel world uh and really win there? How do we get Venmo back to growth? Uh how do we make sure our unbranded business now can be set up for the future and really make sure that not only are we winning merchants, but we're delivering value added services that we can monetize. So those were the types of things that we really focused in on. Uh that focus allowed us to start that turnaround that we talked about for the business, but then also allowed us to improve our execution because now we've got dedicated teams that are customer back. We reoriented the organization so that they were focused on our customers, our consumers, our small businesses, and our large enterprise merchants. Uh and now the team is just really starting to innovate and crank away. So look, it's these these turnarounds take time. uh and uh uh you know, we're not where we want to be yet, but we're definitely moving in the right direction. >> You have this one thing kind of hanging over your head as a company, which is $310 stock price that the shares hit in 2021 and it was a total COVID play. Everyone understands that. But still, it's like this stock's around $70 now. And so that's how do you even think about that cuz it's just sort of this mountain over there in the past. >> Yeah. I don't think about it very often. I wasn't here. Uh uh I think there's a lot of plays that uh I understand likely why it went there at the time. I think CO was uh very exciting and very confusing for a lot of uh businesses that were out there. Um, and uh, you know, my job right now is to come in and figure out how we get back to growth and and hopefully we get back to a stock price in in that kind of range in the future. But it's all going to be based on execution, focus, and continuing to innovate for our customers. So look, this is a company that when you have the kind of brands that we've talked about, the the breadth of products, services, and customer base and the amount of volume that we move around the world, we have so much potential in front of us. And then you think about some of the the new uh disruptions that are happening and that that's one of the things that gets me the most excited is you mentioned stable coins. We look at Agentic Commerce, we look at just all the change that's coming. uh we're a leader in the space in a time of big disruption. I think that opens up a lot of opportunities for growth. So I I I obviously have uh uh you know shareholders as a key stakeholder that I think about and I want them to be happy and I want to uh return great results for them. But in terms of focusing on the past and what stock prices might have been, I don't I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. >> And just one more question about the stock. I mean, the multiple is the trailing 12-month PE is 14 and change. And do you think it should be higher than that? And what can you do to to really drive the stock forward? I mean, I'm sure it's this execution. >> Yeah, look, I Yes, I think it should be higher than that. Uh, >> what is it? What is the PE? >> Look, I think our our investors will figure out what what it should be. For me, uh, it's going to be based on consistency, right? I'm not I'm Look, I I came in with eyes wide open, right? We were a company that hadn't delivered profitability, had missed a lot of our uh you know, consistently missed on on our uh guidance coming in. So, look, we were in a penalty box. I totally understand that. Uh what we've been focused on is relentless execution. And, you know, I I get feedback sometimes from from some of our shareholders on, you know, you've underpromised, you know, every time you go to earnings. Yeah. And we've overd delivered. And so for us, we're just going to get into that regular rhythm. We're going to do the best we can. The this is an incredibly dynamic market right now. There's a lot of things that are going on. So, we want to make sure that uh we're able to earn the trust of our investors and uh and I think the stock price will take care of itself. >> And final fun question at the end, which is, are you going to continue to have Will Ferrell do your ads? >> Yeah, Will. Will has been uh fantastic. Again, you know, one of the things we talked about as as we stepped in and and uh you know, we were really focused on the consumer was we got to bring some fund back to the PayPal brand. Uh and you know, as I went around and talked to consumers, they just hadn't thought about the brand in the same way. Even though we're we're a top 50 brand in the world, uh certainly in the US, we had lost a little bit of that uh that gusto. And so, uh Will was a great I mean, he's I've got to spend some time with him. He is uh truly uh the sweetest, nicest, and funniest person you'll you'll ever meet. Uh and you know, stay tuned. We'll see. We'll see. Uh we've had a couple of really good uh really good commercials with him come out. Um and uh he loves the products and he uses them all the time. So, >> all right, we'll be watching Alex Chris, CEO of PayPal. Thank you so much for joining us. >> Thank you. >> This is at Barren. I'm Andy Sir. We'll check you next time.